


Zero

by scarvenrot



Category: OFF (Game)
Genre: Gen, Headcanon galore, I'm Sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-24
Updated: 2013-05-24
Packaged: 2017-12-12 20:16:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/815584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scarvenrot/pseuds/scarvenrot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As the Batter beats Sugar to death, Zacharie recalls his irrelevant memories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Zero

**(0)**

 

There was the Purity, and Him. Each one closing in in its own particular fashion.

 

Shallow waves of plastic lapped at the metal shore. You stood, then leaned in the doorway, then sat. Waiting. He’d disappeared moments ago. You knew He would come back soon. You felt tired for the first time in what had only been hours, Somewhere, but what had been days, Here. Your pack was a burden unlike anything else. You reached into a pocket and touched the film of the credits He’d given you. They were smooth and crisp against the pads of your fingers. Remnants of purified spirits. Thin, and stiff, and pale. You were wide awake, and exhausted.

 

Zone 3 had been the most difficult to see dissolve. You were numb to it, you thought, knowing that the Player would and could never know how it was affecting you. After all, you were just the merchant, and you were expected to do two things: know more about this world than the blind puppeteer, and provide what was needed to accomplish His mission. You had done both of those things. You were still doing both of those things. You had thought about going back to the Library to comfort Pablo, but you couldn’t. It wasn’t in the cards, or the stars, or anything.

 

You had irrelevant memories. The soft fur of a kitten beneath your fingers, sweet laughter, a booming chuckle. Birdsong. A low growl that had been frightening once upon a time. The world around you being built, the Queen’s energy channeled through each Guardian to build the earth out of metal and smoke and meat and plastic. Time, having meaning, being something significant. A time specifically when you hadn’t Known as much. Zone 0 had been nothing, then.

 

No one remembered anything. As the Purity settled in, that was your burden to bear alone. You knew why. The words resonated through you as your hands caressed the credits in your pocket, each number more significant than the last. No one knew enough to be ashamed of you, and you were glad. You weren’t quite sure if you were ashamed of yourself, yet.

 

You’d sold Him the weapons that had been strong enough to blister Dedan’s flesh. You’d sold Him the armor that had protected Him from Japhet’s powerful blows. You’d sold Him the items that had given Him time to think when Enoch was decimating Him.

 

And they were dead, now. All of them.

 

You remembered the word _family_ , and what that would soon mean to the Player. Your own understanding of it was inconsequential, and you kept it to yourself. Your eyes were dry. Your body ached. You remembered everything, except what home had been.

 

 

 

**(1)**

 

Each was touched with madness in his own way. Teeth gnashed and brains boiled, and perhaps it was the most appropriate that such a calm, rustic little Zone had kissed Dedan’s mind with the bitter flavor of rage, unlike anything he’d known before. His body toiled in agony, his brain on fire and his body cold, so cold. He paced his office blindly, shrieking, moaning, howling. The Elsens of Zone 1 had never known fear before, and they were frail. Their own bodies succumbed. Dedan snarled and screamed and spit and swore, his blood pounding, painful.

 

The others had worried. They hadn’t expected it. It had come out of nowhere, as far as they could tell, and Dedan secluded himself: not out of necessity, but because he could no longer stand the others. Japhet fretted. Enoch puzzled. Dedan refused their company, and their sadness gave birth to the doubt that cut such a deep hole in the Queen’s soft sanctuaries. They had all been so happy, before. Everything had been perfect, and beautiful, and everything had functioned as it should. The three had been friends. Close friends, loyal friends. The Elsens had been blissful.

 

You had liked Zone 1 for its structure, and for its cool darkness. The mines were cold, and the meat fountains were naturally chilled by the earth. The metal was freezing beneath bare feet. Even the plastic, which boiled in Zone 3, could only be lukewarm in Zone 1. You’d gone there often to spend time with Pablo, who adored the fountains, and with Dedan, before his madness had overtaken him. You never went to Zone 1 alone, though. Enoch often tailed you, laughing that you should try not to be a burden on the Elsens. He would spend hours with Dedan while you played in the smoke mines, touching the freezing cavern walls and wondering if dirt got that cold, and what dirt even was.

 

The onset of Dedan’s anger coincided with you wondering why the ground would ever be soft.

 

 

 

**(2)**

 

Japhet was beautiful. Pablo’s dislike for him was obvious in some ways and cryptic in others that he wouldn’t discuss. His little brother refused to leave Zone 2 after he’d first seen the fire bird. Perhaps that had been the reason.

 

The bird was kind and generous. He shone in the sky and blessed Zone 2 with rich, marvelous color, words, and music. You saw the Elsens explore their home with wonderment and joy. You saw Dedan’s madness hurt Japhet’s heart, and the gouge that let anxiety into Zone 2. You became aware of a darkness gathering overhead, beyond the roof of the Library, beyond the plastic film of clouds and the soft gray sky, looking down on everything. You became the young master of an amusement park at Enoch’s behest, attempting to bring joy and luxury back to the lives of the Elsens and soothe Japhet’s heart, but you couldn’t build a rollercoaster that was tall enough to pierce the darkness above the sky. The Elsens were too afraid to do anything other than sit quietly and contemplate. Even turning the pages of Japhet’s books became too much for them, and you saw tears for the first time in your life falling from the eyes of a phoenix.

 

You helped Valerie to the top of the Library. He loved Japhet, he said, and he wanted to comfort him. Your eyes had stayed on the pressure building overhead, and you hadn’t even noticed when Valerie had disappeared so suddenly. You had to keep Pablo away from Zone 2, so you left until He arrived. You left a story in the Library so you wouldn’t forget what had happened. When you returned, you’d forgotten which shelf you’d put it on.

 

 

 

**(3)**

 

Your Sister was born in the wake of Japhet’s madness. The Queen blessed Zone 3 with her sweetness, her light heart, her desire for fun. You loved her. Enoch loved her. You were a family. There were three, again, and for a while, the Impurity of the first two Zones hadn’t mattered.

 

You’d blinded yourself. As the days passed, Enoch’s pain swelled. Even in the final stages of his dementia, you could still remember pride glowing in his face, and a time when those sunken eyes had been full of light and energy instead of insanity. You supposed that was irrelevant, though. Everything about the past was irrelevant, because everything had gone so completely wrong. As Enoch had grown Impure, so too had the last remains of the world. The sugar… _his_ Sugar…the greatest prize, the most secret and coveted substance…it had tainted everything.

 

It was Desire, you knew by then. The Desire of a child to be loved by the person he loved most. Purified, extracted from the innocent dead. You knew that feeling. You lost it. It became useless to you, but you missed it. You wouldn’t touch the sugar. You Knew where to find weapons. You Knew what to do with them. You saw an opportunity, and as you hid your only companion in the depths of Zone 0, born from your father’s corruption as the sugar factory pumped boiling plastic and molten metal through the World, you saw the outcome of that opportunity.

 

Even though you Knew, maybe you chose not to believe it was real, even as the Player began. After all, everything you’d known before had been self-contained and insignificant.

 

 

 

**(0)**

 

You trembled when He re-emerged. You felt Him climbing His way up to you, as always, and you looked at the door precisely as He walked in. A wave of pain touched you, like the plastic licking at the shore below. He had it on Him, somewhere. Her Element. And He still didn’t understand what it meant. The End was coming.

 

You stared at the footprints He left behind. Sugar tracked into the room, grains of hope settled like dust, just as easily forgotten. You remembered the word _love_ , and wondered what that might mean for the Player, whoever they were. You told the Player that it was better this way, because the End wouldn’t come if they didn’t believe that.

 

In the End, maybe you could finally shut your eyes and sleep.


End file.
